(Full review can be found on my blog, Paper Riot)In a sentence: A good story about loss and grief, but I was unsure whether a fifth book was necessary.Have you read the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants series? Did you laugh and feel like these characters were a part of your unknown second family because you knew them so well? I sure did. The Sisterhood was one of my favorite series when I was twelve or thirteen, and I've read the first four books many, many times. But somehow I missed that a fifth book had 'recently' been released. Obviously I had to check it out.Since this this was released as an adult book, I was prepared for some changes, but a lot of it felt the same to me. Ann Brashares's writing has always been very descriptive and I knew what to expect. The main difference is the tone: where the first four books were light with some drama, this book was all drama and some lightness here and there. It made me smile at some points, but in no way laugh out loud like the other books did.As a fan of the series, I was pleased to see how Brashares has developed the characters without changing them entirely. They still felt familiar to me, and the way they've grown over the years was very realistic. Readers of the first books will have no trouble picturing the more mature Carmen, Bridget, Lena and Tibby.However, without the lightness of the other books, this one is definitely different. Sisterhood Everlasting is about loss and grief, and every step of the healing process that follows. I think you have to be in the right mood to read it. But though I was expecting a more mature book, I wasn't expecting it to be this sad. I was glad for the moments where the sadness was interrupted with mystery (Tibby's letters) and romance (Kostos!).But the main issue for me - even though these characters were so familiar and I liked getting back in their worlds - was feeling that this was a story that I maybe should not have read. Maybe I should have kept it with the original four books, the ones I've read and read again. Because though I love how Brashares described the grief and healing process, I couldn't stop thinking: why? Was this neccessary? Was this really the final chapter I wanted? I don't think so.Sisterhood Everlasting definitely is a beautiful story, and it was a pretty quick read for me. But the doubts I had as to whether it was a story I wanted to read, made this an okay read for me. The characters are wonderful as always, and I have to admit that it's a nice way of properly ending this series, but for me, there was something missing.
